Brett Keeble

Barring any unforeseen last-minute hurdles over the weekend, former Knights head coach Rick Stone will be reappointed early next week to the position he relinquished to Wayne Bennett as part of Nathan Tinkler’s takeover three years ago.

The club’s interim board of directors met for most of Thursday to discuss a range of issues, most notably who will succeed Brisbane-bound Bennett to coach the Knights next season. Stone emerged as the preferred candidate.

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Knights chief executive Matt Gidley would not speculate about the identity of Bennett’s successor, and said he needed to clarify some issues pertaining to the selection process over the weekend, but hoped to make a formal announcement next week.

‘‘All I can say is we’ve had another lengthy discussion today in relation to the appointment of the head coach, and at this stage, we’re probably looking to be in a position to make an appointment early next week,’’ Gidley told the Newcastle Herald on Thursday night.

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‘‘There was a full board meeting today and the head coach was obviously a key part of that agenda. We’ve been meeting weekly to talk about a whole host of things, and the head coaching position has obviously been one of the main priorities.

‘‘We met for most of the day but we covered a lot of issues around finance and budgeting, the ownership, the structure of the board, and obviously the process around the head coach.’’

Even if the board had signed off on Thursday on Stone as the new coach, it is understood the club would have been reluctant to make an official announcement on Friday because of the potential distraction in the lead-up to the game against Melbourne at Hunter Stadium on Saturday.

Stone also has to coach Newcastle’s NSW Cup team in a game against Cronulla, to be played as a curtain-raiser to the NRL fixture.

Stone, a product of Newcastle Rugby League club Lakes United, joined the Knights in 2006 as an assistant to Michael Hagan. He coached Newcastle in 54 NRL games between 2009 and 2011 for 25 wins and 29 losses.

Stone replaced Brian Smith in round 23 of 2009, steering the Knights to three wins from their last four regular-season games to reach the finals, where they were eliminated by the Bulldogs in week one.

The 47-year-old former carpenter was in charge for the next two seasons, missing the finals in 2010 but returning in 2011, before handing the reins to Bennett.

He remained at the Knights as one of Bennett’s assistant coaches, and last year coached Fiji to the World Cup semi-finals.

As well as assisting Bennett with the NRL squad, Stone replaced Rip Taylor as the club’s NSW Cup coach at the beginning of 2013. He guided the Knights to within one game of the grand final, and they are currently eighth with four rounds remaining.

When Bennett announced he would not coach Newcastle next season, there was speculation he would return to St George Illawarra, who he coached to the 2010 premiership during a three-year term.

But the Broncos announced on July 21 that their foundation coach, who was in charge for 21 seasons from 1988 to 2008 and led the club to six premierships from as many grand final appearances between 1992 and 2006, was going home to Brisbane.